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Job Insecurity and Well-Being: Moderation by Employability

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Abstract

The present study investigates the relationship between job insecurity and well-being (psychological distress and life satisfaction), and the potential role of employability in this relationship. With regard to job insecurity, we hypothesize that job insecurity may be related to poor well-being. Regarding employability, two avenues are taken. First, we argue that employability may be beneficial in much the same way that job security is. Second, we suggest that employability may mitigate likely unfavourable consequences of job insecurity for employees’ well-being. Hypotheses are tested with a sample of 639 Belgian employees from six organizations. The results suggest that job insecurity is related to poor well-being, while no such association is found for employability. Furthermore, employability moderates the relationship between job insecurity and life satisfaction, as expected. Specifically, the model accounts for 8% of the explained variance. However, this pattern of results is not replicated for psychological distress.

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Notes

  1. Some authors argue that job security is a resource rather than a demand (e.g., Demerouti et al. 2001). However, others highlight problems related to restructuring and reorganization, which are likely to be associated with job insecurity, as demands (Bakker et al. 2003).

  2. The GHQ-12 included four error variances, while life satisfaction included three error variances.

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Acknowledgments

Inmaculada Silla-Guerola, Francisco J. Gracia and José M. Peiró acknowledge the support of the following *CONSOLIDER EJEC* (SEJ 2006-14086/PSIC). Nele De Cuyper’s contribution was supported by a grant from the FWO (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek—Vlaanderen; post-doctoral fellowship).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIEMAT-UVEG Research Group, Sociotechnical Research Center (CIEMAT), Gran Vía de les Corts Catalanes, N° 594, 1°, 1ª, Barcelona, 08007, Spain

    Inmaculada Silla

  2. Research Centre for Stress Health and Wellbeing, K.U.Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Nele De Cuyper & Hans De Witte

  3. Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Francisco J. Gracia & José M. Peiró

  4. IVIE, Valencia, Spain

    José M. Peiró

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  1. Inmaculada Silla
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  2. Nele De Cuyper
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  5. Hans De Witte
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Correspondence to Inmaculada Silla.

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Silla, I., De Cuyper, N., Gracia, F.J. et al. Job Insecurity and Well-Being: Moderation by Employability. J Happiness Stud 10, 739–751 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-008-9119-0

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